Sky make 'official' Newcastle United change that will anger Aston Villa & West Ham fans

The Premier League ‘big six’ has been officially rebranded as the ‘big seven’ by Sky ahead of the new season. The historic ‘big six’ of Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur has had Newcastle added to it.

It comes after Newcastle finished fourth in the 2022-23 season and seventh in the Premier League last season. The change interestingly omits Aston Villa, who came seventh in the 2022-23 season and fourth last season, qualifying for the Champions League for the first time.

But Villa are named as a club outside the ‘big seven’ along with the likes of West Ham United and Brighton & Hove Albion, who have also broken into the top seven in the Premier League in recent seasons.

Villa head coach Unai Emery has dismissed the notion of the ‘big six’ with only one of the last five Premier League seasons seeing all six sides make up the top six.

“Now it is not a top six but a top seven, top eight or top 10,” Emery said previously. “There are a lot of teams capable of targeting those positions and I want to add Aston Villa into it too.”

Newcastle head into the new season after missing out on European qualification as they look to break into the top six once again while Villa will be hoping to continue their rise under Emery while also competing in Europe for the second successive season.